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Wednesday, May 11, 2011

4x4 Tour from Tupiza to Uyuni

We start the tour in Tupiza at 8 in the morning. In Our Land Cruise we are Ismael (the driver and theoretically the guide), Fortunata (the chef), Simon (Londoner half Spanish) with his partner Jacky (Irland), Tristan, Anna and me.
The past night has been raining a little bit, and half an hour after we start the trip start to rain lightly again. Is that lightly that end up to become snow!!!
All the peaks of the mountains are with snow at the top and the formation of El Sillar is surrounded by a very big clouds.

We have lunch with snow and very cold weather.
After the hot meal we keep going passing through two small villages, San Pablo de Lípez and Relave. Later on we pass through the Laguna amarilla and after the sunset we entry to the Reserva Nacional Eduardo Avaroa to end sleeping at Quetena Chico. The accommodation is very simple as they told us.
We eat the food that have prepared Fortunata, we play cards and we go to sleep very early (I sleep inside my sleeping bag… is so cold...).
In the morning, the sky is clear!!! Fortunata have the breakfast ready, and once we fill up our stomach, we keep going.
The Laguna Hedianda and Kollpa Laguna are the first’s stops of the day and then we pass the Aguas Termales that later we will go, and we stop at the named Rocas de Dalí.
You could find some similar style with the Dalí work, but you have to be very imaginative...
And then we arrive at Laguna Blanca and Laguna Verde located next to the Lincancabur volcano (5950m). We wait a little for some wind that makes the green more strong. It does.
Now is time to a bath at Aguas termales before lunch. I have the feeling that I am in one Japanese onsen...
The Geysers is the high point that we pass, 5000m! The geothermic activity is very strong and you can see boiling the water of the geysers.
After the geysers we go to one of the hot spots of the park, the Laguna Colorada.

We stay at 4 km of the Laguna Colorada, at Huayllajara.
Ismael tells us that because the rain from the other day the level of the water at the Salar d’Uyuni is higher than before (the last few months have been raining and they had to close the pass that we suppose to go through and cross the Salar), we can got stock in the middle of the salar. He say is in our hands. The alternative is to go to sleep at Uyuni doing another route and in the morning go to visit the salar. We tell him that we would like to go to the original plan, and we suggest him to try to encourage the others tours drivers to cross all together like a convoy, and if doesn’t work it’s ok for us to do the alternative. We will know the option next morning, on the way.
Rest, eat and some card game before go to bed.
The next morning the first thing we visit is the Arbol de Piedra and then we cross the Desierto de Silot to go lagoon by lagoon till the place where we have lunch, with a great views from the Volcán Ollague.

Ismael informs us that they decide to do a convoy to cross the salar. Iujuuuu!!!
With a smile on the face, we head to Salar de Chiguana to cross it and get to the village of San Juan from where we go to search for accommodation in a block salt hostel at Kisa. Accommodation with views at the Salar de Uyuni, comfy and comfortable. We could stay here few days.
We take a shower!!!! For 10 Bolivians you can take a hot shower!
We have dinner and do some card games to get ready to go to sleep early.
We have to wake up at 4.30 if we want to see the sunrise from the salar.
At very slow speed, we cross the floated area without problems...

With the light growing, starts to make some reflects of the mountains that surrounded the salar on the water... spectacular!!! This could be more Dalinian!!!
We make some time waiting for the breakfast walking the Isla Incahuasi or Isla del Pescado. A mountain in the middle of the Salar full of millenary Cactus with a great views of the salar.

We are lucky that in the island they have nice bathrooms, because we have a collective emergency and we end up talking while we are sitting in the bathroom…
We eat the breakfast and we are ready to cross the salar...
The salar is amazing...
The bigger flat surface in the earth... and the one more salty... and the one more white...
We stop in the middle of the salar to make some photos and then we go to Colchani for lunch to end up at Uyuni.

We say goodbye to Ismael and Fortunata and after buy the ticket to Potosí for the bus at 6:30PM, we visit the cemetery of trains.
To Potosí!